Part of St. Williams Street in Round Rock to close Sept. 24 for project, study

Part of St. Williams Street, between Christopher Avenue and McNeil Road in Round Rock, will close Sept. 24 for approximately one week as part of a two-fold effort to complete a drainage improvement project and study the impacts of a proposed permanent closure of the street's intersection with McNeil.

Gary Hudder, City of Round Rock transportation director, said the closure was necessary to install new pipes in an older system.

"During the last big rainstorm, we had some flooding [in that neighborhood]," Hudder said. "We discovered that some of those drainage pipes are no longer serviceable."

Hudder said the need for the construction project allows the city to further examine the impact of a possible permanent closure of the intersection of St. Williams and McNeil. The closure is proposed as part of the Railroad Quiet Zone Project, a joint effort between the City of Round Rock and Union Pacific Railroad to allow trains to pass through town without sounding warning horns. Hudder said Union Pacific suggested the closure as part of the project.

Hudder said the city will conduct traffic counts at all other entry and exit points into neighborhoods affected by the possible closing at St. Williams Street and examine how that traffic is dispersed with the closure in place.

"Ironically enough, this becomes a nice additional tool to all the other studies we've done," Hudder said of the weeklong closure.

Hudder said data collected would help the city better understand the effects of redirecting an estimated 2,600 vehicles per day. He said the city wants to determine the impact on the other access points for neighborhoods in the region, including Chisholm Valley, Westwind and Bellview.

"We want to make sure the drainage project is done correctly," Hudder said. "And we want to make good use of that time to get some really good data now on how (the closure) affects the traffic moving."

Hudder said signage is in place directing traffic to detours around the affected area.